Watch Dogs is now out; here’s our Watch Dogs review.
Ubisoft have announced today that they are to produce a full feature film of their upcoming hacker extravaganza, Watch Dogs. Ubisoft Motion Pictures will team up with Sony Pictures Entertainment and New Regency to develop the film. Hannah Minghella, president of Production for Columbia Pictures is said to be “thrilled” with the partnership, and thinks the film will lead to an “exciting thriller”.
With so many thrilled people working on a thriller, the Watch Dogs movie is sure to thrill audiences as well.
First check out a new trailer for the game itself, due out later this year:
Jean-Julien Baronnet, chief executive officer of Ubisoft Motion Pictures had this to say about the announcement:
“Since both Sony and Ubisoft have movie and videogame branches, this deal creates exceptional opportunities for us to merge the realms of the story-based cinematic experience with the interaction of the video game,” said Baronnet. “In addition, Sony Pictures and New Regency have deep production expertise and are letting us maintain a strong creative voice in the film’s development. Together, we’re confident we can deliver a movie that builds upon the excitement that the game is already generating.”
The president of Production for Columbia Pictures, Hannah Minghella also showed her eagerness for the project:
“The themes and open gameplay of ‘Watch Dogs’ lends itself perfectly to the big screen,” she said. “It has tremendous potential as a motion picture and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work closely with Ubisoft’s internal creative team on the development of the project.”
Certainly, with the rise of the surveillance state in the news lately, it’s no surprise movie studios would jump at Watch Dogs. But there’s also no denying that it’s an unproven franchise, and a lot probably hinges on how well audiences receive the game.
On the other hand, maybe this is the right way to make a film based on a game: rather than wait until the games have had their moment, and then try and re-create it on film, it might be wiser to just take the premise and see what kind of cinematic story can be told.